‘I understand, all right. The hopeless dream of being…’
The Swedish maestro Ingmar Bergman is one of the most celebrated film directors of all time. In his best known and supposedly most accessible work The Seventh Seal, Bergman presents the viewer with a medieval knight playing chess with the personification of Death. The point being, this is not a filmmaker who is afraid of a challenge. Persona begins with a montage of gruesome images including sexual perversions and disembowelments and only becomes more disconcerting from there…
Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann) is a mute actress confined to a medical facility. When Alma (Bibi Andersson), a young nurse, is tasked with caring for Elisabet, the two move out to the countryside to aid recovery. Once there, the lines between fantasy and reality and Alma and Elisabet begin to blur as dark secrets are revealed and shared.
Released in 1966, a time when Hollywood was still two years away from the end of the Hays Code, Persona is an uncompromising, frequently shocking film that recalls the more esoteric work of Roman Polanski in its dark paranoia and intense relationships. Both Ullmann and Andersson are wonderful here in a pair of challenging roles, Ullmann has to rely on her facial expressions and body language to express great truths, whilst Andersson spends much of the 80 minute running time delivering verbose, emotional monologues. As usual, Bergman wrings everything he can out of his main players, resulting in a final piece that is challenging but also emotionally rewarding. This is a film that will make you feel something. Whether that feeling be anger, pain, shock or bewilderment, and as with other provocateurs like Lars von Trier, there is no denying that Persona is a film that inspires strong emotions – both positive and negative.
For those who find early European cinema too surrealistic and strange, Persona will only cement those stereotypes, if you are willing to stop trying to ‘understand’ everything and just let it wash over you instead however, there is a lot here to enjoy… and endure.